Red Raiders to begin post season push

42 down. 14 to go. Texas Tech Baseball has officially started the final leg of the regular season before they head to Arlington for the Big 12 Conference Tournament at the end of May.

If you haven’t tuned in yet, there isn’t a better time.

Texas Tech Athletics

The Red Raiders have 9 conference games remaining against K-State, West Virginia, and Kansas. They also have a weekend series against Sam Houston State, who happens to be leading the WAC. Throw in an odd 1 or 2 games against Abilene Christian and thats it. That’s all.

Currently, Tech sits at 5th in the conference. But the standings look a little strange because certain teams have games to catch up on. See below:

Big 12 Conference

As you can see the two series’ against West Virginia and Kansas State are massive and 6 games will make or break this season in terms of the Big 12 Standings.

In terms of the team, Tech leads the Big 12 in batting with a team average of .322, a stat also good for eighth-best in the nation. They also lead the conference in: runs, hits, triples, RBIs, total bases, and sacrifice flies. Tech is second in home runs, doubles, and slugging percentage.

Texas Tech Athletics

Gavin Kash is having an All-American season. The sophomore from Sour Lake is hitting .392 with 20 HRs and 67 RBIs. He leads the conference in HRs and is 2nd and RBIs and average. Kevin Bazzell isn’t far off of Kash’s pace though. The redshirt-freshman from Rockwall-Heath is 3rd in the conference with a .386 batting average and has 22 doubles-good for tops in the country.

In recent weeks, Mason Molina has taken over the Friday night starter role, and Trendan Parish has been the Saturday man, followed by Jacob Rogers on Sunday. Parish has stepped in nicely to the weekend rotation to solidify Saturday, and Rogers has had positive outings in his own right.

Now stop me if you remember this from past seasons, but this pitching staff is Jekyll and Hyde. Some days, they can’t throw a strike if you wanted them to. But other days, like Ryan Free’s relief appearance in Norman (5 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 9 K, 66 pitches), make you think we have the best staff in the country. The highs are high, and the lows are low. It would almost implore you to replay last season over and over in your head (see: Brandon Birdsell & Andrew Morris on the weekends).

Regardless of your feelings about the pitching staff, you can’t deny that the Red Raiders control their own destiny. If they want to rattle off nine straight wins in conference play to win the regular season championship, they can. They have the resources to do so. Lord knows they have the offense to do it. Can Tech find the pitching depth to make a run? That is the million dollar question.

We’ve seen the pitching staff come up with magnificent performances in the past, like the regional last season. But, this time, Brandon Birdsell and Andrew Morris aren’t here, and Mason Molina can’t pitch all three days, but neither can Beckel or Free. The point may be worn out, but it is for a reason. Tech is still looking for a couple of reliable arms to get some action for the rest of the season.

Texas Tech is poised for a late season run. The Red Raiders are due. First up? Kansas State. Let’s take it one game at a time and make a statement, shall we?

Texas Tech Athletics

Next Up:

Texas Tech travels to Manhattan, KS for a three game set this weekend.

Friday: 6:00 p.m.

Saturday: 4:00 p.m.

Sunday: 1:00 p.m.

All games are televised on ESPN+ and are broadcast on the Texas Tech Sports Radio Network.